WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- The National Prescription Drug Take-Back campaign provide a safe way for Americans to dispose of their unwanted prescription drugs, U.S. officials say.
Michele M. Leonhart, acting administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, says medicines that languish in home medicine cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse.
Many Americans may not know how to dispose properly of unused medications -- some flush them down the toilet or throw them away -- but those are both potential safety and health hazards, Leonhart says.
In more than 2,700 sites nationwide, government, community, public health and law enforcement partners will be collecting potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs for destruction Saturday, Sept. 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time.
"Prescription drug abuse is the nation's fastest-growing drug problem and take-back events like this one are an indispensable tool for reducing the threat that the diversion and abuse of these drugs pose to public health," Gil Kerlikowske, director of National Drug Control Policy, says in a statement. "The federal/state/and local collaboration represented in this initiative is key in our national efforts to reduce pharmaceutical drug diversion and abuse."
